Identifying Pneumonia With DNA Test May Help Faster Treatment Of COVID-19

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have developed a DNA test that quickly identifies secondary infections in patients with 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The results were published in the journal Critical care.

Patients who are hospitalized for COVID-19 and have secondary infections are twice as likely to develop pneumonia while ventilating compared to those who do not carry the virus. Mechanical ventilation is often the only way to keep people with severe disease alive, but it makes them more vulnerable to other bacterial and fungal infections.

Investigators developed the method using a high-throughput DNA test capable of providing doctors with the information they need to begin treatment in hours rather than days that current tests require. The possibility of achieving faster results offers the possibility of better treatments for infections.

“At the onset of the pandemic, we noticed that patients with COVID-19 seemed particularly at risk of developing secondary pneumonia, and started using a rapid diagnostic test that we had developed for such a situation,” Andrew Conway Morris, co-author on the study said. “Using this test, we found that patients with COVID-19 were twice as likely to develop secondary pneumonia as other patients in the same intensive care unit.”

The test uses a multiple polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which detects bacterial DNA that can be completed in about 4 hours, creating a shorter window for bacteria to grow. The technology runs multiple PCR reactions in parallel, allowing the test to simultaneously detect 52 different pathogens, especially those that can infect the lungs.

For the first time, the test has been used in routine clinical practice and has been approved by hospitals. Researchers believe that similar approaches may offer an advantage if applied more widely.

“We found that although patients with COVID-19 were more likely to develop secondary pneumonia, the bacteria that caused these infections were similar to those in intensive care patients without COVID-19,” said Mailis Maes, the lead author of the study. “This means that standard antibiotic protocols can be applied to COVID-19 patients.”